The proprietor of Nigerian female basketball side, Air Warriors, Abduldumajeed Solademi is of the opinion that too much attention being paid to football is detrimental to other sports in Nigeria. The sports administrator also revealed to Trust Sports that he set up Air Warriors basketball club to fight off signs of depression after his mother’s death.
What informed your decision to set up Air Warriors basketball club?
I will say the death of my mother some years back pushed me into basketball. I was a lover of football and I still love football till date. However, when my mother died in 2013, I sought solace in basketball to avoid depression setting in. It was from the basketball courts that I fell in love with the game.
Do you regret your decision to venture into basketball sponsorship and administration?
Although there were moments I was tempted to take a break from basketball administration due to challenges that have to do with funding, I don’t regret the move. At a point, I said to myself that I took solace in basketball to help me overcome my mother’s death but the burden on me in terms of managing the club was telling on me financially and emotionally and I wanted to just leave. In the end, I couldn’t leave.
Why did you choose the name Air Warriors?. Many believe the club is sponsored by the Nigerian Air Force.
Like I said earlier, I formed the club to keep the youths out of the streets and engage them with sport which can better their life and the country. It was a means to give back to society as well as helping me kill whatever depression that was setting in after the loss of my mother. I got some players from the streets who had nowhere to go. I gave them the platform to earn a living. Then my wife and I decided to call it just Warriors but we had some Air Force personnel who told us to call the club Air Warriors.
In 2019, your club emerged Zenith Bank Women’s Basketball Champions but was unable to represent Nigeria at the FIBA Africa Club Championship. What was the problem?
It was very painful for the entire team that we couldn’t make it to Egypt to represent Nigeria at the biggest club championship for women club after putting everything into becoming champions of the Nigerian league. We couldn’t surmount financial hurdles. However, we want to assure our teeming fans and the entire basketball family that such will not repeat itself, if we have another opportunity to represent our great country again.
What are you doing to remain top contenders in the Nigerian Women basketball league?
To remain one of the top teams in Nigeria basketball, we have also mapped out strategies to attract corporate sponsors for our programmes because we want to continue to strive to be the best among the pack. By the way, most people don’t know that we also have a male team. When people talk about Air Warriors, their minds just go to the female team. However, I must admit that the female team is more popular because of their successes on the courts.
Apart from efforts aimed at attracting corporate sponsors what else are you doing to make Air Warriors more formidable?
We are also setting up an academy for the purpose of grooming our own players from a tender age to ensure they imbibe in the culture of Air Warriors. We are regularly in camp, training very well to keep fit and updated as well. The girls are determined to make history on the African continent when the opportunity comes again having done so in Nigeria, fighting off more established clubs like First Bank, Customs, Dolphins and MFM to emerge champions in the debut season.
What would you say is responsible for the limited number of privately owned clubs in the league?
It has not been easy for the privately-owned clubs to survive due to funding. Sponsoring a club is capital intensive. We want individuals and organizations to come to the aid of sports development in Nigeria. Government should also create an enabling environment for sports to grow. That is one of the ways we can grow the game in Nigeria. If you look at the North African countries, their jerseys are branded by corporate organisations who fight to have their logos, names on them. Unfortunately, we don’t have such opportunities here. Attention is focused more on football to the detriment of other sports but it shouldn’t be so. There is a need to have a shift towards other sports if we really want to develop that sector.
What are the chances of the D’Tigress and D’Tigers to make the country proud at the Tokyo Olympics?
I believe we will spring a surprise. The ladies have trained adequately in Atlanta and that is a plus for the basketball federation. I know more camping exercises will be organized for the national teams. What hampered our progress in the past was poor preparation. The camp is earlier than the past where camping was like two or three weeks to the competition. The USA may find it difficult to defeat us. If you look at the qualifier we played against them in Serbia, despite the poor session of training, we were able to put up a strong challenge. We will drag with the US. I am not even concerned about France or Japan as I see D’Tigress qualifying from that group.
Considering the rating of your club in the league, do you have players in the women national teams?
Our centre power forward, Murjanatu Musa has played for the D’Tigress. She represented Nigeria in the 3×3 basketball tournament at the 2019 Morocco Africa Games and 2019 African Beach Games, Cape-Verde, the team won Gold and Bronze respectively. She was called up to represent the D’Tigress and to participate in the Tokyo 2020 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in Belgrade.
